----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Kollmann"
Newsgroups: rec.boats.cruising
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 9:28 AM
Subject: Skip, this may help with refrigerator problem.


Refrigerator:
Skip, Line coming out of BD50 compressor’s side is high pressure
line, in warm seawater it would be the one that gets the hottest and
may be why O ring failed in it. Hopefully compressor was not
overheated as well. When failed O ring was removed I hope all pieces
were accounted for. As you know your system has no filter or screen
protecting expansion capillary tube inlet orifice in high pressure
liquid side of system.

The O-ring came out nicely - just flat! (well, actually, on close review, a
truncated right-angle cone ring) - no scars, and a brilliant metal where the
new one landed immediately and was immediately inserted and tightened.

Yes, the single service connection on top of compressor is where
vacuum dehydration pump and recharge with 134a is accomplished. Rube
Goldberg would give you an A+ for trying to complicate a simple
process.

:{)) When my vendor and Veco kept telling me that I should have a low-side
tap, foolishly, I believed them. Reviewing the manual, and, of course
referring to your earlier helpful comments, I stopped worrying about that.

As to Rube Goldberg, if I'd known that the vacuum was an R12 fitting, I
could have been sucking away much earlier. Getting the gas to the system
would still have taken a bit longer due to the hens-teeth nature of the
134aF/12M fitting (everyone has the reverse).

However, I'll acquire my own vacuum pump shortly, which will eliminate that
problem, and we'll be good to go with my 134-only gauge set and can
adapter/R12 hose.

Only time will tell if you dehydrated deep and long enough to
be successful. On your system successful performance can only be when
refrigerant volume and keel cooler condenser cooling are in balance as
seawater temperatures and compressor speeds change.


Agreed. However, I suspect that a previously closed (and remaining closed
due to the quick-connects) system, evacuated at 6cfm for 14 or whatever
larger number of hours it was, likely pulled it about as far and dry as it
could get absent some industrial-grade sucker.

As I write, all the door repairs/improvements are finished, and, 12 hours
into an 83° 10CF (total) box' cooling, I'm at 10.9 and 32.3 in the freezer
and reefer, respectively, and no ice on the return line. I've left the
charge line/can attached just in case I'm not absolutely perfectly charged,
but the trial run suggests it's right on. I'll make that determination
after a while of running at normal cycling vs full-time pull-down.

My vendor, who'd been watching from the sidelines (the Boy Scout program in
the Keys, where he's a charter captain in those months the program
operates), including some emailed pix of what was going on, wrote after my
last to say:

"Congrats,
You need to fill out a job app. for service technician now when you're
ready to come out of retirement."

He'd offered me a job when he came to look at the boat in Keys Boat Works
just after the wreck, too; apparently, following your suggestions about
box-building, including the doors (with carefully calculated swing radii to
make sure of the angle I'd have to cut into them to allow opening, with all
that depth) impressed him :{))

And, to my previous, my presumption had been that the circulating fan had
been running. Turns out not so, as my reed switch had failed somewhere
along the line, discovered during the redo of the power line to the LED
cluster which comes on when the door's opened at the same time the fan
switches off, and the reverse when closed. So, yesterday, before
reassembly, I ordered new (one for spare) NO/NC switches, and put in a new
fan, along with repairing the broken line on the LED cluster for the
lighting. Once the switch arrives, it will be a 10-minute job to install
it.

Due to the now-constant 90+ temps here, I've also rigged something similar
to, but much improved over, the setup to keep the keel cooler wet which I
did in St. Pete during our wreck rehab. In our prior trial, the water
running off it got cooler as it stabilized; I assume that will assist in my
overall efforts at having cold beer for Lydia and coke for me, along with
the first-in-many-days, cold eggs to break for our breakfast that I enjoyed
feeling as I picked them up over the bowl this morning :{))

I believe this concludes all but chatter on this thread :{))

L8R

Skip and crew, back to the old grind (first step to polish up the new
weld/SS installation on the bow roller/cage system)


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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